This invention relates to the reaction of carbon monoxide with formaldehyde and a 1,2-glycol to obtain cyclic oxoparadioxanes.
Oxoparadioxanes are cyclic compounds containing a 1,4-dioxan-2-one ring ##STR1## They have a variety of known uses. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,280,065, granted Oct. 18, 1966, describes latex stabilization and preservation compositions incorporating a heterocyclic compound containg a 1,4-dioxanone ring. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,351,485, granted Nov. 7, 1967, describes wood preservative compositions incorporating compounds having a 1,4-dioxanone ring. Also U.S. Pat. No. 2,910,518, granted Oct. 27, 1959, describes separation of aromatic hydrocarbons from a hydrocarbon mixture by extracting with ketodioxane.
Oxodioxanes have previously been isolated from the reaction product of the nickel catalyzed reaction of diethylene glycol and ammonia in a quartz reactor in the presence of hydrogen. Dobrovol'skii, et al; Zh. Vses. Khim. Obschchest, 1969, 14(5), 589-90 describe such a process.
Malinovskii, et al; Ukr. Khim. Zh., 1970, 36(6), 592-4 prepared 1,4-dioxan-2-one by cyclizing Cl(CH.sub.2).sub.2 OCH.sub.2 CO.sub.2 H with triethylamine and by boiling O.sub.2 N(CH.sub.2).sub.2 O(CH.sub.2).sub.2 OH with hydrochloric acid.